Removing old_slug and old_date from WordPress Database

Hey classywebsites,

Thank you for the inquiry.

We are not really sure how will this affect the installation because we haven’t really tried removing those entries before. But it looks like it is used by WordPress to check if the post date has changed. Removing it will probably not make any difference because WordPress will still generate it back once the posts are updated.

// Redirect Old Dates
add_action( 'post_updated', 'wp_check_for_changed_dates', 12, 3 );
add_action( 'attachment_updated', 'wp_check_for_changed_dates', 12, 3 );

function wp_check_for_changed_dates( $post_id, $post, $post_before ) {
	$previous_date = date( 'Y-m-d', strtotime( $post_before->post_date ) );
	$new_date      = date( 'Y-m-d', strtotime( $post->post_date ) );
	// Don't bother if it hasn't changed.
	if ( $new_date == $previous_date ) {
		return;
	}
	// We're only concerned with published, non-hierarchical objects.
	if ( ! ( 'publish' === $post->post_status || ( 'attachment' === get_post_type( $post ) && 'inherit' === $post->post_status ) ) || is_post_type_hierarchical( $post->post_type ) ) {
		return;
	}
	$old_dates = (array) get_post_meta( $post_id, '_wp_old_date' );
	// If we haven't added this old date before, add it now.
	if ( ! empty( $previous_date ) && ! in_array( $previous_date, $old_dates ) ) {
		add_post_meta( $post_id, '_wp_old_date', $previous_date );
	}
	// If the new slug was used previously, delete it from the list.
	if ( in_array( $new_date, $old_dates ) ) {
		delete_post_meta( $post_id, '_wp_old_date', $new_date );
	}
}

If you really want to test it, make sure to create a backup or a restore point first.

Best regards,
Ismael

Hi,

Thank you for the update.

The code above is already included in the WP core, so you don’t need to add it. It checks if the post date has changed and will regenerate the _wp_old_date entry whenever necessary.

Best regards,
Ismael

Hi,

Almost all functions in the core are available in the documentation.

You can check it out here.

// https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_check_for_changed_dates/

The actual code can be viewed in the Trac.

// https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/5.4/src/wp-includes/post.php#L6287

Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,
Ismael